Belmont University today broke ground on a 71,000 square foot building that will house its College of Law, and be named for Nashville philanthropists Randall and Sadie Baskin, who donated $7 million to the building fund. Baskin is the owner of the Randall Baskin Co. and the founder and former owner of Brentwood-based Continental Life Insurance Co. He has served on Belmont University Board of Trustees for 19 years and previously endowed a scholarship fund that supports five undergraduate students each year. The law school building will include a five-level underground parking garage, more than a dozen classrooms, trial and appellate courtrooms, a two-story law library and more than 20 faculty offices. Total cost for the project is estimated at $32 million. The college will begin classes in the fall of 2011, although the building is slated to be finished in the fall of 2012. At full capacity it will enroll 360 students.

TODAY'S OPINIONSClick on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database or to obtain a text version of each opinion, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at the TBA's Membership Central.

You can obtain full-text versions of the opinions two ways. We recommend that you download the Opinions to your computer and then
open them from there. 1) Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This should give you the option to
download the original document. If not, you may need to right-click on the URL to get the option to save the file
to your computer. 2) Do a key word search in the Search Link area of TBALink. This option will allow you to view
and save a plain-text version of the opinion.

This is a fraud claim between ex-spouses. While the petitioner mother and the respondent were dating, the mother became pregnant, and she told the respondent that the child was his. Consequently, she and the respondent married, and the child was born during the marriage.
Years later, the parties divorced, and the respondent paid child support to the mother. After several years, the respondent obtained a DNA test, which revealed that he is not the child's biological father. After he told the mother of the test results, she filed a petition requesting a court-ordered paternity test and modification of the parenting plan. The respondent filed a counter-petition, alleging negligent and/or intentional misrepresentation by the mother for falsely representing that he was the child's biological father. After a bench trial, the trial court awarded the respondent compensatory damages for past child support, medical expenses, and insurance premiums paid for the child, compensatory damages for emotional distress, and attorney fees. The mother now appeals. We conclude that under Tennessee statutes, the respondent cannot recover the past child support, medical expenses, and insurance premiums, as this would be a retroactive modification of a valid child support order. We find that the remaining damages for emotional distress cannot be awarded for the tort of fraud and misrepresentation, because such damages are non-pecuniary. Therefore, we reverse the decision of the trial court.

Starting this week, a Knox County judge is hearing cases in an unusual place: a room in the City County Building. The Old Knox County Courthouse, where small claims are usually heard, was just too small to fit the 610 cases that were on the docket yesterday. The court's deputy clerk said the turnout is the largest the civil division has ever handled in one day.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida ruled Thursday that parts of a lawsuit by 20 state attorneys general seeking to void the recently enacted health care law can go to trial, saying he wants to hear additional arguments from both sides over whether the law is unconstitutional. By contrast, a federal judge in Michigan threw out a similar lawsuit last week.

Attorney outplacement firm Counsel On Call has ramped up its business development team.
Jay Brenner, who previously served as a litigation attorney in the firm's E-Discovery Division, now will focus on candidate selection and assignment in Memphis. Richard Ferri has been hired to manage new business development in the southeast from his Atlanta office. He previously worked as regional sales manager for Canon Business Solutions. And Bob Garms has been hired to work in Chicago as a midwest account executive. He previously was senior litigation consultant and director of court reporting for 24 Seven Discovere.

A group that tried to take over the grand jury and town of Madisonville earlier this year is now featured in a Time magazine cover story this week. "Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias" includes the escapades of Walter Fitzpatrick of Sweetwater, who stormed the Monroe County Courthouse on April 2 and tried to arrest the grand jury foreman. Then in May, Darren Huff of Dalton, Ga., was arrested after traveling to Madisonville to take over the county courthouse, free Fitzpatrick and arrest officials who had charged Fitzpatrick. Both men face trial in December.

Murfreesboro Police detective Kelvin Jones has been named winner of this year's Judge Wheatcraft Award from the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. The award, established in honor of Judge Jane Wheatcraft, is given to a member of the judicial or law enforcement profession for leadership in improving access to justice for victims.

Lawyers in the Tri-Cities area will hold a legal clinic this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Downtown Kingsport Association. Groups involved include the Bristol Bar Association, Kingsport Bar Association, Legal Aid of East Tennessee and TBA Young Lawyers Division. For more information or to volunteer contact Carla Forney at Legal Aid at (423) 928-8311 or Adam Moore, TBA YLD District Representative, at (423) 224-2030.

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners will interview candidates for the vacant position of General Sessions Criminal Court judicial commissioner on Oct. 20 at 11 a.m. Applications are due by the close of business on Tuesday, Oct. 19. The completed application and a resume must be hand delivered or faxed (901-545-3713) to Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chief Administrator Steve Summerall.